The Vancouver Canucks were shown a montage of their goals before the morning skate Thursday in an effort to pump them up, accentuate the positive and reduce the negativity that has crept into their game both mentally and physically. With just five goals their last five games and a 1-9-1 funk taking the fun out of even going to the rink, any Stuart Smalley type approach from his legendary Daily Affirmations sketches on Saturday Night Live — ‘I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me’ — can’t hurt.

The Canucks likely need to win 13 of their remaining 18 games to get to the 92-point plateau and squeeze into a wild-card playoff position. The way they’re playing, seven wins might be a stretch. With no semblance of a top line or top performers — Alex Burrows has scored in all of his 32 games in an injury-riddled season, the injured Daniel Sedin hasn’t scored in 22 and Henrik Sedin in 21 games — you look for something. Anything.

“This is a first for me and for them (players), too,” said Canucks coach John Tortorella. “When we’re scratching to gain some offence and get some goals, we just looked at 65 of them — half the goals we’ve scored this year — just to let them know they can score. You have to think something good is going to come. It kind of rejuvenated me. When I see a goal, I remember that game and how we played and I hope that happens for them (players). No sense of brow-beating or being negative. It’s tough enough. We have to get some energy in ourselves even to win a game.

“I don’t sleep because it shakes you. What can we do different? The responsibility falls on me in all facets of the game.”

The eighth-place Dallas Stars are two points up on the 11th-place Canucks with two games in hand. They’ve also beaten the Canucks in both games this season — 2-1 on Nov. 17 at Vancouver and 4-1 at Dallas on Dec. 19. The temptation tonight will be give away some defensive structure to create offence. The Canucks attempted that in Phoenix on Tuesday but a 1-0 loss was the result of giving up too many chances while trying to penetrate a clogged neutral zone.

“You have to stay steady with that through this process or it turns into 20 chances for them and six for us,” said Torotrella.

Shawn Matthias will make his Canucks debut after being acquired Tuesday along with Jacob Markstrom in a trade that sent Roberto Luongo to the Florida Panthers. The 26-year-old centre strived for consistency and a bigger role with the Panthers. Those 48 goals and 97 points in 312 career games — including nine goals and 16 points in 56 games this season — speak of unfulfilled potential. The Mississauga, Ont. native had 14 goals in the second half of the 48-game lockout season when he filled an injury void on top lines. And three goals and two assists in two games before the trade deadline. That would earn player-of-the-week honours in Vancouver

“I was kind of type cast there because they had so many young guys and prospects they wanted to develop,” said Matthias. “I kind of felt like it was time to leave. Coming here to an older team, you can see that the maturity is there and I think I’m going to fit right in.

“I’ve been hearing rumours and when it happened, I was smiling from ear to ear.”

Matthias will likely slot in as a third-line centre tonight and can also play the wing. And for now, Tortorella just wants the 6-foot-4 Mississauga, Ont. native to play.

“He’s a big body and I’m anxious to see him play and we’ll go from there,” said Tortorella. “It’s some youth and enthusiasm and it’s different and that’s important for our lineup.”

OF NOTE — Brad Richardson is injured and won’t play tonight. Eddie Lack starts and will keep the net until Markstrom gets more comfortable with instruction from Rollie Melanson. Kari Lehtonen will be backed up by Tim Thomas, acquired from Florida after Luongo went there. “If anything, it may have let Dallas know I was available and I had discussed with the Panthers about a scenario to go to a team that as in or pushing for the playoffs,” said Thomas. “Circumstances with Roberto pushed things along, but it wasn’t the total scenario. I bet we would have been good teammates.”

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